Angelina Jolie’s father only found out about her double mastectomy on the internet – despite being with her at the weekend.

Jon Voight said yesterday: “My love and admiration for my daughter can’t be explained in words.

“I saw her two days ago with my son Jamie.

“We all got together for his birthday, with her and Brad. But I didn’t know.

“It wasn’t obvious at all. I found out Tuesday morning.”

Hollywood legend Voight, who was reconciled with his daughter in 2011 after a 10-year feud, said he never realised what she had been going through.

The Oscar-winning actress and mother of six revealed this week that she has had a preventive double mastectomy at a clinic in Beverly Hills after learning she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer. Doctors had told 37-year-old Angelina she carried a faulty gene that sharply increased her risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer – which killed her mother at the age of 56.

In an interview in America, 74-year-old Voight also told how Angelina and Brad had tried to make sure the operation was not distressing for their young children.

He said: “She has great courage, she’s a brave person – she made the choice to do it this way.

“She also told me there’s a holistic way as well that she was considering —alternative medicine.

“But in the end, she made this choice to do it medically and made it in a very strong way and did it very admirably. The two of them worked this out in a way that was quite incredible. The way they dealt with the kids, the way they educated the kids through it and brought them into it from day one, made it like an adventure.

“They dealt with it as a family in such a proper way.

“I didn’t find out until this morning and I got a terrible shock.

“I’ve spoken to Angie since and she talked me through it but I am very shocked, of course.

“I saw her a couple of days ago and she looks terrific, so she seized this and did it in the most remarkable way.”

Angelina’s mother, the actress Marcheline Bertrand, succumbed to ovarian cancer in January 2007.

They were close and Angelina has previously admitted that she struggled to cope with the loss.

The twice-married Tomb Raider star now has only a five per cent chance of getting breast cancer.

She said the operations have not changed the way she feels about herself or her femininity.